


come the morning every blue shade of green

by 100indecisions



Series: Loki fic [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, Gen, Loki (Marvel)-centric, Loki Posing as Odin, Time Travel, yes it's BOTH
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 23:23:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18679393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/100indecisions/pseuds/100indecisions
Summary: There is a ripple in the fabric of reality. To Loki, it feels more like a tidal wave.Major spoilers forAvengers: Endgame.





	come the morning every blue shade of green

 

When it happens, Loki is in a meeting with Odin’s councilors and far too many minor nobles, struggling to stay awake.

It’s not even an important meeting, as such things go, and in fact there is almost no reason for the Allfather to be there in person except for the outrage that will result if he refuses to be involved in their petty disputes. He knows from experience how it will go: the opposing parties will ostensibly present their cases to him in a thinly veiled excuse for shouting at each other and trying to prove their own importance; Loki will pretend to listen to every detail about who cheated whom out of a tiny percentage of taxes, or whose renovated pathway did or did not overlap with his neighbor’s property by a single handspan, and they will leave satisfied that they have been heard. Then Loki will retreat to Odin’s study and reduce the conflict to its relevant components (rarely more than a sentence or two, and never more than a paragraph), at which point the solution will be painfully obvious. He will present his compromise to the council the next day, and the opposing parties will agree to it, having saved face and maintained their pride by acceding to the king’s decree rather than to each other (or, for that matter, sheer common sense).

Loki understands very well the power of appearances, and he knows that even this flawed method is far more efficient than most alternatives, but _Norns_ it is dull, especially when he truly does have more important matters to deal with (shoring up Asgard’s defenses, monitoring the rebuilding efforts after Malekith’s attack, finding resources he can divert from the military to infrastructure and diplomacy, or literally _anything_ else). At the moment, he is mostly thinking about the precautions he will have to take so he can send an illusion instead to these specific types of meetings without anyone noticing. No one is likely to touch the Allfather, but the illusion would need some measure of solidity just in case, particularly for handling papers and other objects—

There is a ripple in the fabric of reality. To Loki, it feels more like a tidal wave.

He jerks in his seat as if he’s been struck. He must make a noise of some kind as well, because most of the councilors and a few of the minor nobles turn to look at him, expressions ranging from concern to quickly hidden impatience, and Loki has no time for any of it. He thumps Gungnir once on the floor, declares the meeting adjourned, and leaves before anyone can accost him. Let them assume what they like.

The moment he is out of sight, Loki drops Odin’s form, cloaks himself in shadow, and runs to the Vault. He slips inside and only just remembers to seal the doors behind himself, too overwhelmed by the near-frenzied awareness pulsing at the edges of his senses to focus on anything else. The Tesseract and the Casket of Ancient Winters rest in neighboring alcoves, both casting an eerie blue glow in the dimness. Loki reaches for the Tesseract and wills his hands not to shake.

“ _Show me_ ,” he commands the Tesseract, and it does.

It is a torrent, what the Tesseract gives him, but some things are clear. This timeline has become only one of multiple realities, diverged from another reality in which Thanos gathered the Infinity Stones, snapped his fingers, and reduced half of all life in the universe to ash; a reality in which Loki himself died at the Titan’s hand at last; a reality in which Earth’s mightiest heroes lost the battle that mattered most and refused in the end to accept it— _created_ diverging realities through a bizarre new form of time travel, and assembled their own Infinity Gauntlet to reverse the cataclysm.

And Thanos, pragmatic and implacable as ever, has just taken his army and stepped from one timeline to another so he can seize all six Infinity Stones in one fell swoop.

A great battle is raging, the kind worthy of song, more than worthy of Valhalla. The Tesseract does not show him every moment, nothing so straightforward or coherent, but it knows its counterpart and the other Stones, and it fills his mind with images and sensations. In flashes he understands that it is all happening _now_ , that there is fire and destruction as Thanos makes a wasteland of the Avengers’ home, that these stupid stubborn mortal heroes are ready to die in a vain last stand if that is all they can do—

—and Loki watches, half-blind and frozen and unable to do a single damned thing, knowing he is about to witness the end of not just one reality but _all_ realities—

—and the battlefield fills with portals, pouring out _armies_ to stand against Thanos and even the odds. It will all be for nothing if Thanos gets his hands on the mortals’ Gauntlet but there is a _chance_ to defeat him and make everything right, to save all the realities the Titan wants so badly to destroy. Loki watches, barely breathing, hands clenched in fists so tight he is drawing blood but he cannot feel the pain.

And then, and _then_ —

Thanos regains the Gauntlet but _loses the Infinity Stones_ to one of the heroes, and with a snap of the fingers the universe is remade once more. The power of the Infinity Stones blasts across the battlefield in a massive shockwave and the Titan’s army collapses into dust—Chitauri, Outriders, Leviathans, his surviving Children, every last one crumbling gently to ash that drifts away on the wind. Thanos sees it all and comprehends the absolute finality of his defeat before he, too, silently dissolves into nothing and is gone forever.

Loki sits down hard on the floor of the vault, next to the two objects that have haunted so many of his nightmares for the past few years, and laughs until he cries.

* * *

There is no Thanos to interrupt the _Statesman_ ’s journey to Midgard. This time, when Thor declares that everything will work out just fine, Loki knows down to his bones that his brother is right. This time, the God of Mischief seizes his new beginning in both hands, almost daring the Norns to take it away—and this time, he gets to keep it.

**Author's Note:**

> I have extremely mixed feelings at best about Endgame, but one thing I definitely did like--at least given the alternatives--was [the creation of new timelines](https://thelightofthingshopedfor.tumblr.com/post/184581975427/no-wait-the-endgame-hill-i-will-die-on-is-not), especially when I realized [one of the specific implications](https://thelightofthingshopedfor.tumblr.com/post/184558116082/you-know-something-cool-about-endgame-actually) of the 2014 divergence. (And hey, if you happen to be on Tumblr as well and you want to follow me, feel free; [reblogging this fic](https://thelightofthingshopedfor.tumblr.com/post/184592665512/come-the-morning-every-blue-shade-of-green) is greatly appreciated!) So: a short, timely fic, actually written within a couple days of seeing the relevant movie. I know, I'm shocked too. 
> 
> (The Russos [did confirm the whole alternate timelines thing](https://www.comicbookmovie.com/avengers/avengers_endgame/avengers-endgame-co-director-joe-russo-answers-some-huge-lingering-questions-and-addresses-major-spoilers-a168101), by the way, in case people are still unclear about that. I mean it's their own damn fault for not making it clearer in the movie...and a lot of the other things they say in that interview are hot garbage...but like I said, I prefer the multiple-divergent-realities interpretation to any alternatives.) 
> 
> Fic title is from "Go Places" by the New Pornographers.


End file.
